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Conservative MP Tim Loughton (Jessica Taylor)
PA Media
A “whole raft of senior Chinese officials” must be hit with sanctions to stop Beijing targeting Britain’s political system, a senior MP is urging.
Tim Loughton, who sits on the Commons home affairs committee, argued that tough action is “the only language that the Chinese government actually understand”.
The Conservative MP, who himself has been sanctioned by Beijing after criticising the regime, spoke out ahead of an expected statement to Parliament about alleged Chinese interference in the UK’s political system.
The Government was reportedly set to consider sanctioning individuals identified as being involved in cyber-attacks on the Electoral Commission, claimed to have accessed the names and addresses of 40 million voters, as well as on 43 people including MPs and peers.
Efforts to step up pressure on Beijing in response include looking at sanctions on individuals thought to be connected with the alleged activity, according to multiple reports.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden is expected to tell Parliament that Beijing is behind a wave of cyber-attacks against MPs and peers, and the Electoral Commission.
A small group of politicians who are hawkish on China are said to have been called to a briefing by Parliament’s director of security, Alison Giles, in relation to the activity.
They include former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Mr Loughton, crossbench peer Lord Alton and SNP MP Stewart McDonald, the Sunday Times reported.
The four are members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) pressure group, which focuses on issues involving the increasingly assertive Asian power.
Some of those affected are understood to be preparing to jointly address the matter publicly on Monday.
Speaking on BBC radio’s Westminster Hour, Mr Loughton said: “China is a strategic threat.
“I think it is the most dangerous nation on the planet across a whole range of issues, security but also climate change.
“But the trouble with the Chinese Communist Party government is that you have to call them out, you have to stand up to them and there have to be consequences.
“That is the only language that the Chinese government actually understand and if you just say all this is not very good could you do better please then they laugh in your face.”
The East Worthing and Shoreham MP added: “For too long we have not taken that threat seriously.
“I hope we are going to have some serious consequences. We need to have a whole raft of senior Chinese officials seriously sanctioned because of what has been going on with this cyber attack, what is going on in Hong Kong…what has been going on in Xinjiang (province).
“I hope at last we are going to get serious about China and then we can have a grown-up conversation that if they want to be regarded as part of the international community, they have to abide by international law and the norms that we take for granted, then we can have normal trading relationships.
“But we are nowhere near that at the moment.”
A Government spokeswoman refused to comment on Sunday.
Meanwhile, reforms of UK spying laws are continue to make their way through Parliament, with the Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill also in the Commons on Monday.
The legislation includes measures to make it easier for agencies to examine and retain bulk datasets, such as publicly available online telephone records.
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